Directors' cash fails to drive up Stagecoach

Bus and rail group Stagecoach has gone into reverse for the second day running, despite directors backing the company with hard cash. After its gloomy comments on Wednesday about the effect of the economic downturn on travel and rail in particular, the company's shares fell 16.5%, and yesterday they fell another 10.1p to 133.10p. Investors proved indifferent to news that chief executive Brian Souter has spent £2.9m to buy just over 2m shares at 138.96p each, taking his stake to 14.85% excluding options.

Another director, Sir George Mathewson - last heard of attempting to scupper the HBOS/Lloyds TSB merger - has spent nearly £50,000 on 35,800 shares. Souter is sitting on a loss of £120,000 after yesterday's fall.

Overall, after a rather volatile day, leading shares closed almost unchanged despite the Bank of England's reducing borrowing costs to their lowest level for 57 years and the European Central Bank also cutting rates. The FTSE 100 - having been as high as 4261 and as low as 4090 - ended down 6.35 at 4163.61.

An opening fall on Wall Street took the shine off the rate decision. Traders are increasingly nervous about today's US non-farm payroll numbers, with big American companies such as AT&T, DuPont and Viacom announcing thousands of job cuts yesterday.

Several of the miners fell after Goldman Sachs downgraded the sector from attractive to neutral. Xstrata dropped 61p to 629.5p, Antofagasta lost 17.75p to 388p and BHP Billiton was 15p lower at £10.60. Rio Tinto closed 61p lower at £10.87 despite talk it might sell its share of a Chinese aluminium joint venture. But Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, untouched by a Goldman recommendation, added 21.5p to 260.5p while Kazakhmys, where Goldman set a buy rating, climbed 10.25p to 231p.

Interest rate sensitive stocks were lifted by the Bank of England move. Housebuilder Barratt Developments rose 5p to 58.5p, Persimmon added 5p to 188.75p and Bellway was 27.5p better at 526p despite saying conditions continued to be extremely testing. Enterprise Inns added 5.5p to 65p, presumably on hopes that consumers will spend mortgage savings in their local pub.

Forth Ports was 66p higher at 886.5p as concerns that a major shareholder could be a forced seller began to fade. Investec analysts, in a buy note with a £12 target, said: "The future of Babcock & Brown Ltd (manager and part investor in B&B European Infrastructure Fund LP, owner of a 23.5% stake in Forth Ports) seems more certain today, following an agreement with its banking syndicate. This should allay potential investor concerns that a fire sale of the Forth Ports stake may happen."